Notices — First Sunday of Advent

Today we wel­come Fr Mike Nix­on, former Rect­or of our Par­ish as our preacher. 

Happy birth­day to: Pau­line Newell; Christine Thur­ley; Belinda Reddy; Kathy Drum­mond; Fran Mor­ris; Jen­nifer Bestel; Thomas Flem­ing; Geor­gie Mar­tin; and Ron­ald Naidu.

The flowers today have been donated today by Beth Arm­strong in memory of her son John Edward Finney. 

Flowers today have also been donated today by the Reddy Fam­ily in memory of Edward Reddy’s Birth­day (1^st Dec). 

Today: 6pm Even­ing Service 

Fly­ers are avail­able for dis­tri­bu­tion today, to put in let­ter boxes where you see appro­pri­ate and to give to your neigh­bours and friends. 

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Advent Study Gath­er­ings — Mondays 7.30 pm (begin­ning 2 Decem­ber) & Wed­nes­days after Morn­ing Tea: Come along for some lively dis­cus­sion and fel­low­ship on a Monday Even­ing.  The study we are using for Advent dis­cus­sions is the Advent and Christ­mas “Sac­red Space Book­let”.  Throughout the Advent sea­son, each day includes a Scrip­ture read­ing and points of reflec­tion, as well as a weekly top­ic enhanced by six steps of pray­er and reflection. 

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This week: Sat­urday 7^th Decem­ber – St Luke’s Mini Mar­ket. To be held out­side the OpShop – between 10 am & 2.30 pm. Pre­serves, curds, pickles, jams, plants and cakes for sale, and a BBQ. 

Announce­ment: The Anglic­an Prim­ate of Aus­tralia, Mel­bourne Arch­bish­op Philip Freier, has announced that he will step down on March 31, 2020 before his term was due to expire, and will not seek re-elec­tion.  Arch­bish­op Freier, who has served a six-term as head of the Anglic­an Church in Aus­tralia.  We pray for all those involved in appoint­ing the new Anglic­an Prim­ate of Aus­tralia and the can­did­ates seek­ing elec­tion.  Also, for Arch­bish­op Freier as he con­tin­ues his role of Arch­bish­op of Melbourne. 

Hos­pit­al­ity volun­teers: Thank you to Eliza­beth and Ellen­or Flem­ing, and Diana Jef­fer­ies for tak­ing on Amrit and Brett’s Hos­pit­al­ity days.  Now if we could only get three or more oth­er people for anoth­er week­end, our hos­pit­al­ity teams would not feel so burdened.  YOU can do this – no effort needed and all food can be bought and the cost reim­bursed.  Teams often swap due to com­mit­ments as well!  If you are inter­ested, please see Ruth Champion. 

Dona­tions of money are reques­ted in lieu of gifts this Christ­mas for: Angli­care ‘Toys’n’Tucker’ and ‘Stan­more Nurs­ing Home’.  We will not be col­lect­ing presents/gifts this year.  Instead the Par­ish Coun­cil has decided to col­lect dona­tions of money and use this to pur­chase gift cards (Toys’n’Tucker) and small food gifts (Stan­more Nurs­ing Home) on behalf of the par­ish.  If you would like to donate money, please place it in one of the envel­opes provided in the foy­er.  Your dona­tions can also be placed in the Church Account by Dir­ect Cred­it with ‘Toys’n’Tucker’ or ‘Stan­more Nurs­ing Home’ as the ref­er­ence.  Thank you.

Christ­mas cards ($10 per pack) and 2019 Lec­tion­ar­ies ($15 each) — now avail­able from the Par­ish Resource Centre.  Please see the Man­ager, Steph­en Gates dur­ing Morn­ing tea.

Next week: Sunday 8^th Dec — Ecu­men­ic­al Advent Pray­er Ser­vice – at 7pm. This will be kindly hos­ted by St Paul of the Cross, 532 New Can­ter­bury Rd, Dul­wich Hill par­ish with refresh­ments after­wards (bring a plate to share). 

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This month:

Sunday 15 Decem­ber — will be the day we will give gifts to our young people dur­ing our 9.30am ser­vice; Sunday 22 Decem­ber — will be our day to vis­it Stan­more Nurs­ing Home after church and morn­ing tea, to sing car­ols and give them a small gift; and Sunday 22 Decem­ber — at 6.30 p.m. we will hold our ‘Nativ­ity Play Without Rehears­al’ and sup­per to follow.

Christ­mas Eve (oth­er­wise known as Mid­night Mass) we are hold­ing at 11 p.m.

Christ­mas Day our Euchar­ist and Car­ols will be held at 9.30 a.m. fol­lowed by morn­ing tea.  We are look­ing for volun­teers to host the morn­ing tea.  Please let Ruth know if you can do it.  Unfor­tu­nately, with so many of us away at Christ­mas it is not pos­sible to host a lunch on Christ­mas Day.

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For your diary — 2020 events:

Epi­phany Pil­grim­age to Leura – Sat­urday 11 Janu­ary, 2020. Hos­ted by Lea and Don­ald at 22 Albert Street, Leura.  Euchar­ist cel­eb­ra­tion and BBQ to follow. 

Wordsworth & Maskell Pipe Organ Recit­al — Sunday, 29 March 2020 at 3pm. From Vienna to Enmore, accom­plished young Aus­trali­an-born organ­ist Dav­id Rec­cia Chynoweth per­forms works by J S Bach, Beeth­oven, César Franck, Alex­an­dre Guil­mant & oth­ers on the St Luke’s Wordsworth & Maskell Pipe Organ (1883), unique in Aus­tralia, to mark the res­tor­a­tion of the façade pipes. Keep the date! 

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Our Play Group – 9^th Decem­ber is last day for 2019. For carers of young chil­dren is con­tinu­ing in the hall Mondays 10 a.m. to 12 noon.  Please let oth­ers know about this group.

Food for our little friends — Don’t for­get to keep your cooked food scraps, fruit peel­ings, tea leaves and cof­fee grounds for the par­ish worm farms.  (No cit­rus dairy or meat).

Homemade curds, rel­ishes, pickles and jam - If you would like to order some, please email your order to Lea MacNeil (lea.macneil@gmail.com) and it will be delivered to the OpShop.

Any notices for the ser­vice book­let will need to be sub­mit­ted to the Par­ish Office email by Wed­nes­day even­ing at the latest.

‘Domest­ic Abuse’ inform­a­tion Domest­ic abuse is a pat­tern of beha­viour based on using power and con­trol over anoth­er, caus­ing fear and intim­id­a­tion.  Domest­ic abuse is a prob­lem in Aus­trali­an fam­il­ies, we know it exists and its wrong.  It hap­pens in church com­munit­ies too.   Our church says NO to abuse.  We care about you — your safety is our pri­or­ity. If you are exper­i­en­cing domest­ic abuse or know someone who is, it is not your fault.  You are not to blame.  Sup­port is avail­able.  Talk to someone at church you trust.  You can also call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or the DV Hot­line on 1800 656 463.  For more inform­a­tion vis­it: https://safeministry.org.au/domestic-family-abuse/

Read­ings for the com­ing week: 

Monday	Isai­ah 4.2–6	Psalm 122	Mat­thew 8.5–11
Tuesday	Isai­ah 11.1–10	Psalm 72.1–7	Mat­thew 10.21–24
Wednesday	Isai­ah 25.6–10	Psalm 23	Mat­thew 15.29–37
Thursday	Isai­ah 26.1–6	Psalm 118.19–25	Mat­thew 7.21–27
Friday	Isai­ah 29.17–24	Psalm 27.9–17	Mat­thew 9.27–31
Saturday	Isai­ah 30.19–26	Psalm 147.1–6	Mat­thew 9.35- 10.1 5–8

Read­ings for Next Sunday — Second Sunday of Advent: First Read­ing: Isai­ah 11.1–10;      Psalm: 72.1–7,18–21; Second Read­ing: Romans 15.4–13; and Gos­pel: Math­ew 3.1–12

Weekly Inter­ces­sions for our Com­munity: Monday: Mer­rill & Geor­gie Mar­tin; and Jen­nifer McGov­ern; Tues­day: John M.; Jo Middleton; Fran Mor­ris; and Ian Myl­chreest; Wed­nes­day: Ron, Anthea, Ron­an, Veron­ica, & Rohan Nath; and Ron­ald Naidu; Thursday: Pau­line Newell; and Johnny Nitchar­oen & Eed Dar­unee; Fri­day: Math­i­as Oduro; and Julie & Phil­ippa Olston; and Sat­urday: We pray for all whose lives and pos­ses­sions are threatened by or have been des­troyed by bush­fires or extreme drought.  That they will be com­for­ted, sup­por­ted and sus­tained in their time of need. 

Long Term Pas­tor­al Pray­er list: Rose­mary Brad­ford; Shir­ley, Bar­bara & Jade Allen; Beth Arm­strong; Ann Jeffs; Rhi­an­non Henry-Edwards; Marissa; Jude, Isla, Meg & Al Don­nell; Lyn Car­ring­ton; Ruth Cham­pi­on; Gary & Kar­en Stein­er-Hill; Ken­neth Bar­ongo; Pau­line Newell; Bar­bara Beec­roft; Ron­an & Veron­ica Nath; Sr Eliza­beth (SSC); Loch­lan Lones­bor­ough; Ann Con­nolly; Mea­ghan Pat­ter­son; Saf­fron Pow­ell; the Per­kins Fam­ily; Fr Peter Carls­son; Bee Meng Soh; Day­alan Sam­inath­an; Aman­da & Dav­id Romeo, & Court­ney; and Grace & Han­nah Ashton.